Remembering the capital, the land of prosperity, and past footsteps. Just as the imperial moat brims with melting spring water. In the lanes of Pingkang, embroidered saddles and golden bridles bound as turquoise steeds leaped. Undoing robes to buy wine while drunk to stringed instruments, amidst green willows and red flowers.
"Until now, lingering frost on my temples, sighing over past events within a dreamland... Only cold mist and flying tumbleweeds fill the eyes. Carved balustrades and jade steps vainly lock thirty-six deserted palaces... Frontier pipes startle the dusk-sky geese; lonely is the east wind..." Amidst the sky-filling snow, someone stood facing the wind. The youth in purple robes held a folding fan, his voice carrying an ineffable emotion.
"Lonely... like the wind..." Alin caught a falling snowflake, watched it melt in her palm, and murmured, "Desolate... like snow..." She glanced at the purple-robed youth, and thinking of something, she pressed her lips together and smiled.
Chapter 28